Falling Together
by morsmordree
Summary: Sometimes things had to fall apart for better things to fall together. Draco Malfoy knew that better than anyone else.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

"Remind us why you aren't coming with us for the holidays again 'Mione," Ron asked for what was the seventeenth time that day. Hermione shook her head at him, smiling softly to herself.

"Oh Ronald," she sighed, shutting his trunk and sitting down on top of it, exasperated "we've been through this time and time again. I'm not going to give up such an amazing opportunity." He frowned at her, but said nothing more. He knew that there was no changing Hermione's mind once it had been set. She was as stubborn as a mule. Ron sat down next to her on the small trunk and gave her a sideways hug.

"We'll miss you, you know."

"I know."

"Hermione," Harry called out from beneath his bed. He had been crawled under there trying to find his invisibility cloak for the past ten minutes. "If you've got some free time when you're uh," he began, popping out from beneath the four poster, "not doing whatever it is interns do," Harry paused, slithering out, cloak in hand, "you should try and do some more research about the horcruxes. We haven't been able to find anything yet, and I'm starting to get a little worried."

"I'll try Harry, but healing isn't as easy as you would think. I'm probably not going to have much free time."

"I still can't believe you're going to be hanging out with Madame Pomfrey for Christmas," Ron grimaced. Hermione had managed to get an internship under the school's healer for the Christmas holidays, and she was absolutely thrilled. Just the past year, Hermione had finally decided what she wanted to do with her life after much deliberation. Healing was perfect. It was challenging and noble. It was about saving lives, and it wasn't an easy career path. The Gryffindor was extremely proud of herself for having a plan. Harry and Ron were still clueless. They vaguely toyed with the idea of being aurors.

Hermione shook her head at the boys. "Hurry up you two, the train leaves in an hour and we still have to eat lunch."

"Yeah, yeah mum..." Ron grumbled, getting up and gathering the last of his things, an array of snacks that he had bought during the last visit to Hogsmeade, and shoving them into the various pockets in his pants. Harry tucked his cloak in his trunk, snapped it shut and the three friends make their way down to the Great Hall just in time for lunch.

It was a lunch almost like any other, having started as such. Harry and Ron had loaded their plates and stomachs while Hermione had watched in amusement, eating her fill. The Gryffindors all were joking about one last time before they all had to leave. Parvati and Lavender were sharing Christmas plans. Neville was staring off in the direction of the Ravenclaw table. Ginny Weasley was late. Hermione looked up to see the redhead running into the hall and taking her spot next to Dean. She pressed a quick kiss onto his lips, before settling in to have her lunch.

The peace lasted until about three quarters of the way through when Hermione's eyes roamed over to the Slytherin table. It had become a sort of habit for the sixth year to watch the Slytherins, their expressions stony, their table often silent, ever since Harry began to speak of his distrust of Malfoy. Hermione didn't particularly believe him. Malfoy was cruel, but he was too young to be a death eater. The war had made the Gryffindors ache for a deeper closeness and it had made the Slytherins far colder with each other, that was all. They stuck to themselves and rarely ever spoke amongst each other. Aside from that, nothing much had changed in them. Malfoy though had been undergoing a series of changes, a subject of perusal for Hermione all year long. She had watched him grow sallow, watched the bags to form under his eyes, the color disappear from his skin. Draco Malfoy looked exhausted.

Hermione thought he deserved it.

Draco Malfoy had barely touched his food. He didn't particularly have much of an appetite that day, not that he had much of an appetite any day before that. Using his fork, he had pretended to push around the food, swirling colors to paint a picture on the plate, his eyes never leaving it, as though mushed food was the world's most fascinating sight. Draco was feeling rather queasy about heading home for the holidays, not particularly looking forward to sitting down to dinner with Lord Voldemort each night, and especially not looking forward to having that stupid reptile of his slithering about in the Manor. There was nothing he could do about it though. He would have to silently weather the storm, and if there was anything Draco Malfoy did know how to do, it was that. Sighing, the Slytherin reached to pour himself a glass of the eggnog that was being passed around. It was going to be a long holiday. Malfoy took a sip of the eggnog. It tasted wonderful, more so than it had any time before. He lifted his goblet to his lips again and downed the drink in one go.

Nobody knew quite what had happened, but one second Draco Malfoy was another stony face amongst a sea of green, and the next he was collapsed onto the floor and Pansy Parkinson was shrieking like a banshee. Even Hermione couldn't figure it out. She had seem him take a long drink of the spiked eggnog that was circulating around the hall. She herself had avoided the drink, having overheard some of the Gryffindors planning the prank in the common room a few days ago. Draco had replaced his goblet, taken a few bites of food and promptly collapsed. She had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with that eggnog. She hadn't thought much of it at the time. Malfoy was rushed out to the Hospital Wing, where he would undeservingly be well taken care of and then he would be on his merry little way. It was nothing to fuss over . _Malfoy_ was nothing to fuss over.

Lunch had ended shortly after Malfoy was levitated to the Hospital Wing and the students returning to their homes gathered their things in order to make the train back. Pansy Parkinson wailed to any listening Slytherin about how unfair it was that she would be heading home and "her poor Draco" would be stuck at school. She was, for a whole fifteen minutes, adamant about staying with him, until Blaise Zabini conveniently reminded her that Malfoy was most likely going to be detained a day and would arrive at Malfoy Manor the following evening. He convinced Pansy that it was best if she just went home on her own. Hermione shook her head in amusement, having heard most of the conversation, as she waited for the boys to levitate their trunks. Ronald still had trouble with that spell sometimes. Honestly, you would think that in six years he could have figured at least that out!

The boys were loaded into the train with their things faster than Hermione had imagined and after a couple tight hugs and promises to write, they were gone, leaving behind only the scent of the smoke that had billowed from the Hogwarts Express. Hermione stood there a moment, collecting her thoughts before heading back, slowly. Her mind was lost in thought and had been for quite some time. This horcrux business was strange indeed. She didn't like seeing Harry so worried about something that was so ridiculous. It shouldn't be impossible to find information on a particular subject. She was even supposed to good at that sort of thing. Hermione wasn't due to start her internship until the following day, so she decided that it was a perfect time to pay a visit to the library. Surely some book there would have what she was looking for. The Gryffindor had a hunch that she would find what she needed most likely in the restricted section, but as of yet, she had no way of getting into that section, so she would stick to rifling through the books she did have access to.

Madame Pince had been as helpful as possible, directing Hermione to some areas that had, as Hermione requested, the more obscure subjects in magic, but that still left her with whole shelves to work through. She had selected a few that looked worthwhile and settled into a table, getting comfortable. Hermione was just cracking the book open when a first year Gryffindor came up towards her shyly.

"Madame Pomfrey requires your presence, Miss Granger," he said promptly, if a bit quietly.

Hermione smiled at the poor kid. "It's Hermione. Did she say anything about what she wants?"

"No. Just that I was to tell you that she needs your help. It's urgent."

Frowning, Hermione set her book down and stood up. "Alright, thank you," she dismissed the boy. She quickly stuffed the books into her bag and swung it onto her shoulder. Waving at Madame Pince, she darted out of the library and made a dash for the Hospital Wing. So much for getting some research out of the way. Hermione stopped outside of the Hospital Wing to catch her breath a moment before going in.

"Madame Pomfrey?" she called out. The room was silent. Hermione walked further in, past the beds and called out again. There was still no response. Hermione quietly removed her bag and set it down on a nearby chair. "I don't understand why she would call me here only to up and disappear like that..." She hopped up onto a nearby desk and crossed her legs. The rows of hospital beds were all empty, the sheets tucked neatly under the mattresses, edges taut, pillows fluffed, and blankets folded over. All the beds were empty, except for the one which Hermione assumed Malfoy was currently inhabiting. A screen had been drawn out to surround the bed and hid whoever it was from sight.

Hermione knew she ought to have waited for Madame Pomfrey, she also knew it was disrespectful to Malfoy's privacy, but she couldn't help her curiosity as she hopped off the desk and approached the screen. She pulled it back a little bit, just enough so she could see through it. Malfoy looked distraught even in his comatose state. Something about the dark circles underneath his eyes, more prominent under the fluorescent lighting of the Hospital Wing, and the gauntness that had taken control of his features, that really got to her.

Before her, comatose on a hospital bed, was Draco Malfoy, a boy in her class, her age, sporting a face etched with hardship that shaved away at him. They were both struggling the same, teenagers thrust too quickly too much into adulthood, forced to mature too fast. It simply caught up to him faster than it did her or anyone else. It could be Harry on that bed next, and Ron right beside him. Hell, it might even be her.

"Oh good, you're here," Madame Pomfrey chirped, walking in with a large stack of books in her arms. "I was just down at the library. I must have just missed you."

"Yes, well, I'll admit, since my internship starts tomorrow I didn't really think I would be needed."

"I think your internship needs to be put on standby for now. I need you to look into these books for any information on comatose states, collapsing, whatever you can."

"Is this for Malfoy?" Hermione asked, taking the books from the older woman.

"Yes Miss Granger."

"What's his condition?"

Madame Pomfrey sighed, falling into a chair, and putting her head in her hands "I have not a clue."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that whatever happened to him is unprecedented. The tests I ran revealed nothing. Whatever is going on it's going to be hard to heal him if we can't lure him out of this coma. We need him somewhat alert and functioning, preferably coherent."

"So that's where I come in right? I'm supposed to find out how to get him there?"

"Yes." There was silence for a long moment. Madame Pomfrey stood up all of a sudden. "I'm going to send a missive to Mr. Malfoy alerting him that his son will not be returning home for the holidays." Hermione mentally groaned. She was glad to have an opportunity to work at an unprecedented problem, thrilled actually, but she didn't particularly want to deal with Malfoy when he woke up.

"He won't take that well," Hermione quipped. "What are the chances that Malfoy will be moved to Mungos?"

"I won't allow it. That boy could be further damaged if we shift him. I can't tell if he's got any head, neck, back trauma. There is a haze surrounding the bones that refuses to budge."

"You're going to have to fight Mr. Malfoy tooth and nail for that."

"It wouldn't be the first time..." Hermione watched as Madame Pomfrey disappeared into her office. Left alone by herself with nothing but an unresponsive Draco Malfoy and a pile of books, Hermione did what she did best. She pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill and opened the first book.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

She didn't know exactly when she had fallen asleep, only that she had woken up, head resting on the hospital bed next to Malfoy's legs and the binding of a book jabbing her in the stomach. Her neck had a crick in it and she was sore from sleeping in such an awkward position. Sighing, Hermione rolled her shoulders back before standing up and setting the book on a nearby table. She had not found anything useful at all and she had been up for quite awhile. The brunette stretched out lazily, arms reaching towards the ceiling. She figured it would be a good idea to check up on Madame Pomfrey. Poking her head into the healer's office, Hermione looked around. Pomfrey wasn't in sight.

"Hmm, that's odd." Hermione shrugged and decided to go down to the Great Hall for breakfast. She had missed dinner the night before, being far too drawn into her research. She didn't know if she ought to leave Malfoy alone in the Wing, but she figured he couldn't particularly get into too much trouble as a comatose. The Gryffindor headed out without thinking too much about it. If she thought about it too long she might change her mind, and she was hungry. The Great Hall was fairly empty. Only a handful of students over fourth year had stayed at Hogwarts. Hermione took her spot at the Gryffindor table and filled her plate up. As she picked up her fork, a figure approached, their shadow falling over her. Hermione looked up to see that it was none other than Luna Lovegood. She smiled.

"Hey there Luna!" she greeted.

"Hello," Luna replied, sitting down across from Hermione. "There's not many Ravenclaws staying for Christmas so I figured I'd come sit here and eat with you."

"Oh that's perfectly alright."

"So..." Luna began, expectantly.

"So?"

"How is he?"

Hermione frowned in confusion. "How is who?"

"Draco Malfoy of course."

"Oh, him..." Hermione shook it off. "He's not conscious right now."

"Why? What's wrong with him?" Luna's brow wrinkled in confusion.

"We don't know yet. I haven't been able to figure out anything at all."

"Oh."

"Madame Pomfrey's having me do research," Hermione explained.

"Do you need any help? I've got nothing much planned and..."

"I would love that Luna! Thank you."

"Oh, did you want to see the new issue of the Quibbler daddy sent me? It's got this wonderful article on this muggle animal that's proven to work like Felix Felicis." Luna rifled through her bag and procured the magazine, passing it to Hermione. Hermione smiled and politely opened up to the article. It was titled "Rabbit's Foot, Felix Felicis for Muggles." Skimming through the article, she felt it to be full of rather ridiculous allegations and false chemical theories. It kept her mostly occupied throughout breakfast though, she'd have to give it that. The article was incredibly well-written. Hermione and Luna finished their breakfast and headed towards the Hospital Wing together. The two of them entered the Wing and headed down towards the last bed where Hermione had previously been researching.

"Just pick a book and-oh my god!" Hermione looked down to see that Malfoy had fallen off the bed and was on the floor writhing and squirming. "What do we do?"

"We can't do anything. We're supposed to let him continue with the seizure. Help me move things aside so he has some room." Hermione and Luna pushed the screen aside and the bed further away. They emptied the area around him so he could flail about freely. It was a disturbing sight, and Hermione's first instinct was to move him, or calm him somehow, but she knew that she ought not do anything.

"Hermione, we should put him back on the bed."

"Okay." She pulled out her wand and levitated Malfoy up onto the bed. "We have to figure out what the hell's wrong with him."

"What did Pomfrey want you to research?"

"Anything about comas. I haven't found anything useful. She suspected there may be injury to his spine or whatever, but if there weren't any before there certainly could be some now. He fell off the bed. If he fell off at the wrong angle, he could have damaged something."

"He would've been paralyzed."

"It doesn't necessarily have to be a head, neck, back injury. He could have ruptured something. Torn a muscle or ligament."

"You're right."

"So what do you want me to look into?"

"I don't know Luna."

The girls were standing there observing Malfoy when a flustered Madame Pomfrey hurried in, removing her coat as she moved. "Mr. Malfoy is an atrocious man." Poppy was loathe to deal with him but knew that it had to be done. Why Dumbledore couldn't just command the man to let her deal with it was beyond her. She was as talented as the healers at Mungos if not more.

Hermione quickly moved closer to the healer, eyes narrowing in curiosity. "What happened?"

"He wants Draco moved to his own private ward in Mungos, as expected."

"We're not moving him...are we?"

"Of course we are! We have to. It's terrible. A prime opportunity, wasted!" Madame Pomfrey went into her office in a huff, shutting the door firmly behind herself.

Hermione turned to face Luna who just then spoke up, "Well, I suppose you won't be needing my help anytime soon then Hermione. Shame, really. I was so looking forward to testing my theories on nargle poisoning…" She turned and airily left the Hospital Wing as she trailed off. Hermione looked around in a manner akin to a fish out of water.

"What am I supposed to do now?" They couldn't take Malfoy away. Not yet. This was a fantastic experience for her as an aspiring healer. They had set before her an unprecedented disease and they expected her to let the opportunity to unravel the puzzle slip from her hands? Hell no! For as long as she had known herself, she had known that she loved a good mystery be it Sherlock Holmes or some new aspect of the Wizarding World. She would not rest until she knew what was happening. She picked up the book she had fallen asleep reading.

 _A magical coma is one of the most difficult things to awaken from. It can take decades for a wizard to come to. However, this process can be sped up through the use of Legilimency._

"Legilimency…" Hermione recognized that word. She had heard it somewhere. "Legilimency...legilimency…"

 _Of course! It was the opposite to occlumency! Snape had used it on Harry the past year!_

She continued to read the page.

 _The healer must successfully connect with the patient through Legilimency and subsequently coerce the patient to open up to the source of their magic so that the brain's circulatory system can readily receive oxygenated blood. Magical shock acts very similarly to cholesterol build up in that it clogs the arteries and vessels supplying blood to the brain. The rest of the body remains functional but the patient is unresponsive. The blockade must be broken within a year for the patient to have a chance at a normal recovery. Recoveries after ten years have been known to cause a loss of magic. Healer must also keep in mind that the development of a connection with the patient is extremely difficult as it is the patient's choice whether to let the healer in or not._

Bingo! There it was. It was by no means simple, Hermione could tell, but it was a solution nonetheless. She had tried to teach Harry occlumency the past year after he had failed so drastically with Snape and she was certain she still remembered how to perform legilimency. She was nowhere near as skillful as Snape had been. Her hold on Harry's brain had been fleeting at best.

Still Hermione found herself standing before Malfoy's bed, wand clenching tightly in her hand and pointed directly at him. However futile the attempt may be, she had to try it. She knew that most likely he would kick her out immediately. She didn't quite care.

Hermione whispered a quiet, " _Legilimens_."

Nothing happened.

Her shoulders slumped as she withdrew her wand and stared blankly at Malfoy. She was feeling quite funny in her stomach, about her navel actually…a twisting sensation almost. Hermione's head felt quite woozy and she instinctually stepped back to take a seat. She didn't make it that far, instead collapsing into a heap on the cold, marble floor.

It was awfully dark, wherever she woke up, pitch black in fact. Her eyes blinked blearily as she pushed herself up onto her knees before standing up fully. She whipped her head right and left, searching for any signs of the hospital wing where she had formerly been. "Madame Pomfrey?" she called out, confusion lacing her voice. She took a step forward and heard her feet echo through the dark room. She felt quite silly for trying it, but she next called out, "Malfoy?" Upon the lack of response, Hermione smacked her head. "Yes Hermione, call out to the coma patient." Shaking her head, she searched herself for her wand. She needed some light to see so that she could figure out where she was. It wasn't on her. Her wand was gone! "Is this some sort of prank?" She asked aloud, obviously angered. "Hello?"

She was starting to feel a bit frightened now. There was no sign of anyone and she couldn't see anything except pitch blackness. She stepped forward again bravely, trying to call out again for the school healer. "Madame Pomfrey, please…" She saw it then, a flash of platinum not unlike that of Malfoy's hair. "Malfoy?" she asked again, stepping in the flash's direction. She felt the room give a hum of satisfaction. Had her spell worked? Had she developed a connection with Malfoy? She took another step forward, and then another, fingers slowly reaching out in the dark. "Where are you Malfoy? I'm...I'm here to help." This was ridiculous! How could her spell have worked if she wasn't seeing anything?

Her eyes widened as she felt calloused fingers brush against the tips of hers. Was she imagining this? She didn't think she could imagine something quite so strange. She was smart yes, but not quite so creative. She didn't see him draw closer, and couldn't see him even as he stood a hair's breadth away, yet she felt his presence there nonetheless. His voice was a whisper of wind against the hollow of her ear when he spoke. "Go." Suddenly she was flung from the black room, flung back into the blinding white lights of the Hospital Wing. Her eyes fluttered shut against the invading fluorescence just as a dark silhouette bent over her, waving a hand in her face.

"Miss Granger, are you okay?"

Hermione only groaned in response.

"Miss Granger?"

"I'm fine," she replied hoarsely.

"What happened?" Madame Pomfrey asked as she reached down and helped the student up onto a chair. Hermione motioned towards the pitcher of water on the side table and Poppy flicked her wand to pour a glass. Handing it to her intern, Poppy settled in the second seat beside Draco Malfoy's bed. Hermione drank the glass of water rapidly before looking at Madame Pomfrey with wide eyes. "I got into Malfoy's head," she whispered excitedly.

"What?" the healer asked, simultaneously confused and disturbed. Hermione looked about for the book she had been reading prior to her legilimency attempt. She picked it up from it's spot on the side table and thrust it into Madame Pomfrey's hands.

"Read this!"

Poppy's eyes skimmed over the page, absorbing the information quickly and making connections. "You know how to perform legilimency? That's an extremely difficult form of magic!" The healer was quite impressed and looked upon the girl with astonishment.

"Well, I'm not very good at it. I suppose Malfoy just wasn't putting up so much of a fight in his weakened state." She shrugged, unsure how she had gotten it to work when she had barely gone into Harry's head when she had practiced it before. "Though he apparently got strong enough to kick me out," she continued bitterly.

"Oh don't you see?" Poppy gushed, standing up as she was overwrought with emotion, "This is brilliant! Oh they can't have him moved now! You've developed a connection! You could save him!"

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "I highly doubt Lucius Malfoy would be okay with his only son being saved by a mudblood."

"Poppy," the sharp voice of the headmaster broke the conversation as both healer and intern turned to face the entrance to the Hospital Wing and the elderly headmaster it framed. "Miss Granger," Albus Dumbledore nodded to her, a twinkle in his blue eyes. "The healers from St. Mungo's have arrived to remove Mr. Malfoy."

Madame Pomfrey quickly drew close to the headmaster. "Professor Dumbledore," she began, pleading, "I don't see why he can't be treated here! Miss Granger has already begun to coerce him out of his coma."

"Poppy," Dumbledore began, as though he were placating a three-year-old, "you know I cannot go against a parent's wishes for their child's medical care."

Poppy glared at the man, hissing, "You know that the Mungos staff has always considered Hogwarts cases to be undeserving of their attention. They've never once commended me for my work, despite my having developed spells to counteract the thousand _variants_ to diseases resulting from the Weasley twins' quote unquote merchandise. How dare they encroach on my territory now that someone high and mighty has developed a disease." Pomfrey grew more and more angry as she muttered her little speech, though surprisingly, she maintained a low decibel throughout her rant. "It is unfair Albus!" she grabbed his arm roughly.

"There is nothing I can do, Poppy," he gently removed her arm, motioning the healers from down the hall to enter. All Hermione and Madame Pomfrey could do then was stand back and watch as the most interesting part of their holidays was levitated out of the Hospital Wing and the beds returned to their empty state. After everything was said and done, a dejected Poppy Pomfrey disappeared to her quarters as Hermione Granger carefully tucked away the books that lay scattered on the small table she had previously used. She could already feel the effects of an unsolved mystery fraying at her nerves. She was going to be too distracted to make the most of her internship and she could already tell that Madame Pomfrey might be too angry to be a proper mentor either. Hermione pulled at the slightly crumpled sheets on the bed Malfoy formerly occupied, making sure the white fabric was taut before she shuffled out of the Hospital Wing, the lights flicking off after she left. Yes, this holiday was really going to blow.


End file.
